Roland Emmerich Adds Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ron Perlman, and Joey King to 'Stonewall' Cast

Before Roland Emmerich embarks on his Independence Day sequel or a Stargate reboot, he's fitting in a drama that's a bit off the beaten path for him. Filming has begun on Stonewall, a gay rights drama titled after the famous 1969 Stonewall Riots. With much of the cast already in place, the final additions have now been made.

Bouncing back off the cancellation of NBC's Dracula, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is joining the Stonewall cast, along with Ron Perlman and Joey King. Already on board are Jeremy Irvine, Jonny Beauchamp (How to Make It In America) and Caleb Landry Jones (X-men: First Class), with the film centering on Danny Winters (Irvine), a young gay man in 1969 New York caught in the middle of the violent riots between the bar's gay patrons and the police that became a galvanizing even in the fight for gay rights.

King will play Irvine's sister while Perlman is the shady bar owner colluding with the corrupt police. Is this Emmerich reaching for an Oscar? Or will his more outrageous tendencies (He won't add a bunch of world-destroying earthquakes, will he?) sink what sounds like a promising and important film? [THR]

Read More

Dakota Johnson Joins 'Black Mass'; Jeremy Irons and Jonathan Rhys Meyers Find 'The Secret Scripture'

* By this time next year Dakota Johnson could be a huge star for playing Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey. And we've seen a number of producers jumping on the bandwagon early by casting her in their upcoming films. Johnson has joined Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, and Guy Pearce in Black Mass. The Whitey Bulger biopic is directed by Scott Cooper and centers on the infamous Boston mobster and FBI informant who was a fugitive from justice for more than a decade. Johnson will play Bulger's girlfriend, Lindsay, the mother of his 6-year-old son. Johnson can be seen in theaters now in Need for Speed. [Deadline]

* Jeremy Irons and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are joining an adaptation of The Secret Scripture, which already has Jessica Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave starring. Johnny Ferguson is adapting Sebastian Barry's award-winning novel which follows two contradictory narratives in order to uncover the truth about a 100-year-old mental patient. Meyers has been keeping busy on NBC's Dracula, while Irons recently agreed to play Alfred Pennyworth in Man of Steel 2. [The Independent]

Read More

Rumor: J.J. Abrams wants Jonathan Rhys Meyers for 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

Star Trek Into Darkness is finally here, and its lukewarm box office aside, the real question is whether or not it was enough to get fans stoked over J.J. Abrams directing Star Wars: Episode VII. You can cast a vote on that here, incidentally. With production slated to begin next year in the UK, and a release date pegged for summer 2015, Abrams may be getting a jump on the casting now by calling up an old collaborator.

Sources have informed Latino Review that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is in talks to be the first new cast member, joining Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill who will be reprising their iconic roles. The Irish actor first came to the attention of many in America with the hit soccer comedy Bend It Like Beckham, but has also starred in Woody Allen's Match Point, Todd Haynes' terrific Velvet Goldmine, and played Henry VII through four seasons on The Tudors. He was also part of the IMF Team in the Abrams-directed Mission: Impossible III, so they're obviously quite familiar with one another.

That leads to the question of who Meyers could be playing, as he's done a fairly good job of taking on heroic and villainous roles throughout his career. Personally, I think his creepy, steely eyes would make him perfect to control the dark side of the Force. He'll next play a bad guy in this summer's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Like every Star Wars rumor, take this with a grain of salt until we hear something official.

Read More

Jonathan Rhys Meyers joins 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'

We haven't had much of a chance to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers on the big screen these last few years, as he's been busy indulging his every appetie as King Henry VIII on the Showtime network series, The Tudors. He did give us the unfortunate From Paris with Love, but not much else. Well, ladies, you can prepare to dive into those big blues of his again at your local theater, as he's Meyers has just joined the cast of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

Based on the Cassandra Clare supernatural teen-lit series, the story follows Clary Fray(Lilly Collins), a New York gal who discovers she comes from a long line of demon killers known as Shadowhunters. Meyers will play Valentine Morganstern, an insane Shadowhunter with hopes of turning the world "pure".

Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, Jemima West, Robert Maille, Robert Sheehan, Jared Harris, and Godfrey Gao will co-star in the Harald Zwart-directed film. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones will open on August 23rd 2013. [THR]

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Read More

Fox reaching out to Brody for Fantastic Four reboot?

Reaching out. Get it? Oh, I kill me. All of a sudden people wanna talk some Fantastic Four. I don't know why. Nobody talked about it before and there were two friggin' movies already. Maybe it's the hope that Fox will get this one right.  If these potential casting rumors turn out to be solid I'd say they're moving in the right direction.

Screenrant says that Fox is looking for some high profile talent to fill the family foursome's shoes this time around. No solid but unknowns like Ioan Gruffudd this time. Instead it's looking like Fox has their eyes set on Jonathan Rhys-Meyers(August Rush) and Adrien Brody(The Pianist) to play "Mr. Fantastic" Reed Richards.

As for the lady who'll be reaping the benefits of Reed's stretching ability, the same two buxom blondes who seem to be attached to every comic book role are again the frontrunners: Amber Heard(The Joneses) and Alice Eve(She's Out of My League).  Heard is said to have already met with Fox about playing "The Invisible Woman" Susan Storm, but that's not confirmed just yet. I doubt any fanboys care who gets the role, as long as she has big cans, long blonde hair, and looks good opposite a 6 foot 3 pile of walking bricks.

I don't understand the Meyers thing one bit. He's too young and pretty to play Reed, and not nearly dorky enough. Meyers tried dorky in From Paris with Love earlier this year and it didn't work out too hot. Brody is another one who seems to be up for every major comic book adaptation lately, and while I don't think he has the look either I've learned to stop judging his abilities based on appearance. He certainly proved me wrong in Predators.

Right now this is all just speculation, but worth keeping an eye on. I don't expect FF to begin production any time soon, but expect the rumors to start picking up pretty fast from here.

Read More

Review: 'From Paris With Love'

They should consider taking Paris out of the title. It's misleading. False advertising. There is one line where Travolta, doing his usual trying too hard to be crazy routine, blurts out a line of bravado, "Welcome to Paris, baby." He's carrying a rocket launcher at the time. Too bad by then I had forgotten the story took place there. It could've been Calcutta for all I knew. Might've been more interesting if it was.

John Travolta, doing that bald-headed crazy guy overacting thing he's so well versed at, plays Charlie Wax. Charlie is one of those movie cliche government badasses. The ones with no real leash to speak of, kept off the books by beaurocrats so that he can operate freely. I never could buy Travolta in this type of role. Anytime he needs to be portrayed as a little kooky, he shaves his head and grows a ridiculous furry goatee. He looks like a q-tip that's been dropped on a barbershop floor.

Wax has been dropped into Paris on a vague, horribly defined mission. It's either drugs or terrorism. Whoever wrote this thing seems unsure which direction to take it. Wax is teamed up with James Reese(Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a low level assistant working at the American Embassy. He wants desperately to be a part of The Club, which I guess is a cool way of saying he gets to shoot people for the FBI. In order to do so, he needs to play chauffeur as Wax does his thing.  Reese has a sexy girlfriend who worries about him. Think she likes this new dangerous mission? Of course not. If I knew what the mission was, I probably wouldn't have liked it myself.

Since this is a purely cookie cutter action film, little actually takes place other than Wax shooting a roomful of poorly identified stereotypes. Mostly Asians. The action sequences are bland and uninspired, but what's worse is that they are virtually impossible to track. Every quick cut shows another bad guy blown backwards full of holes, or crumpling to the ground in a heap. I think that's Travolta there shooting them, but since the camera is so impossibly shaky it's hard to tell. I expected a more guided, steady hand from director Pierre Morel, who brought us the intense action thriller, Taken, just last year. Even before that, Morel directed the best action film in years in District B13. Does the weight of expectation cause one to lose the balance in his camera hand? Or was he riding an electric bull during shooting?

I've stated that I can't buy into Travolta when he's playing this type of character. It's essentially the same one he played in last year's The Taking of Pelham 123. Travolta's played plenty of bad guys and tough guys, but he's best when he accentuates his coolness and charm along with it. These generic brutes don't suit him at all. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is another story. The guy has a likable face and some genuine charisma, most notably on his Showtime series, The Tudors. Here he gives a performance that's best described as uninspired. Not that he really has anything to work with. Nobody does. The script is lazy. The story so badly laid out that I think they jettisoned it completely about halfway through(you'll know the scene where it happens) and decided to take a different path to nowhere.

I'm not going to blame Luc Besson for this. Maybe that's me being biased towards one of my favorite writers/directors ever. The guy made The Professonal and La Femme Nikita for pete's sake. From Paris with Love is going for a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang vibe, a riff that relies on pinpoint comedic timing and chemistry between the two leads. None of which are evident here.

Read More